Additionally, flooding as a result of hurricanes has become worse in recent years due to climate change. Sea levels have been rising and Houston sits barely above sea level to begin with, so now there is more water creating larger stormsurge potential than there was 100 years ago (Associated Press). The air and water are also warmer, and warmer water leads to increased evaporation occurring. Increased evaporation leads to a rise in air humidity; the amount of water that sits in the atmosphere. When there is more water in the atmosphere, there is more potential water to be collected by hurricanes and then come down as rain when the hurricane makes landfall. This was a key factor in the massive amounts of flooding that occured in Houston after Hurricane Harvey (Associated Press).
Being a city near the coast, Houston has fallen victim to many hurricanes and most recently was devastated by Hurricane Harvey. Harvey tore through the Gulf of Mexico in and made landfall in late August of 2017. It inflicted $125 billion dollars worth of damage, most taking place in the catastrophic amount of rainfall that took place in downtown Houston, which received upwards of 40 inches of rain in just 4 days (Costliest Tropical Cyclones).
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